ERIC Number: EJ1217588
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0037-7996
EISSN: N/A
Students and Stocks: A Critical Reading of the Stock Market Game™
Feuerstein, Abe
Social Studies, v110 n4 p180-187 2019
According to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which sponsors the Stock Market Game (SMG), more than 600,000 students participate in the SMG each year. The rationale for the game's inclusion in the school curriculum generally focuses on the positive contributions the game is thought to provide with respect to students' understanding of financial markets, financial literacy, and other academic learning. In this article, I contrast this generally positive view of the SMG with more critical perspectives informed by the work of Lauren Willis, Chris Clarke, and Chris Arthur, who share the view that efforts to educate students about financial markets, while potentially helpful, can also be problematic because of their individualistic and consumerist focus. My analysis seeks to uncover the political orientation of the SMG as well as its "latent ideological content" by examining some basic questions such as (1) What is included in the curriculum and what is left out? (2) Whose interests does the knowledge included within the curriculum serve? (3) To what degree does the transmission, organization, and interpretation of the knowledge included distort or reflect aspects of reality (Apple, 2013, p. 23). I conclude the article with a discussion of the ways in which educators might "trouble" or challenge ideological content embedded within the curriculum of the SMG.
Descriptors: Corporations, Investment, Educational Games, Money Management, Hidden Curriculum, Ideology
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A